Unlike the walkout two weeks ago, which circled the perimeter of Tappan Square, this walkout led directly to the Cox Administration Building. There, SFP leaders announced that they would be performing a die-in, a type of protest in which a group of people lie down in a public place as if they are dead. Leaders also passed around a leaflet explaining the plan for the rest of the afternoon, which included the demand for Oberlin to formally condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to divest from corporations that support the Israel Defense Forces — referred to as the Israel Occupation Forces in the leaflet — including aerospace and defense company Elbit Systems; and information technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

At 2:10 p.m., students trickled into the Cox Administration Building and gathered throughout the second floor, the stairs, and the first floor. For about two hours, approximately 80–100 students led chants, sang songs, and laid down to symbolize deceased, injured, and grieving Palestinians. SFP airdropped a document to students in attendance with an email template for students to reach out to Oberlin administrators, faculty, and other campus organizations demanding that Oberlin “acknowledge and condemn Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestine.” At around 4 p.m., Campus Safety officers refused to let in more people, although some students were allowed to leave. Administrators left the building at 4:30 p.m., leading to a brief confrontation between officers and students. 

Shortly before 5:30 p.m, students left Cox and went to President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s house, where an event for prospective students was being hosted. Around 30–40 students chanted outside of the house. At approximately 5:35 p.m, Vice President and Dean of Students Karen Goff exited and started a discussion. Students speaking on behalf of SFP asked Goff to clarify the College’s stance on the conflict in the Middle East, in light of the absence of the words “Palestine” or “genocide” in statements released by the Office of the President. Student leaders and Goff also discussed the context of the Oct. 11 SFP-led vigil to commemorate lost Palestinian lives, where candles and slogans left by students were interfered with in the aftermath of the gathering. After 40 minutes of dialogue, SFP leaders agreed to a later meeting with Goff and President Ambar. 

Production Manager Isaac Imas contributed reporting to this story.

While it was my second choice school, I knew in my heart that it was the right choice for me. So my logic was that, by purposefully oversleeping through such a big decision that would determine the “after” section of my life, I wouldn’t be too disappointed if I saw other people casually posting about it on social media. I fumbled with my password, entering two different versions of it, but when I finally entered the correct version, red and yellow lit up my computer screen. There was the typical college celebration: a celebratory cake, new sweatshirts, and stickers sent in the mail, but it was especially meaningful. Like so many from the class of 2025 or 2026, my senior year of high school was immensely challenging academically, socially, and mentally, and I was excited to leave it behind and start anew.

Yet, even with my excitement for Oberlin, I also had a distaste for going to college in Ohio. From the perspective of a practically lifelong New Jerseyan and East Coast resident, Ohio was a cornfield, a liminal space, and surely nothing but an escape from everything I was previously familiar and comfortable with. I guess it’s also part of a greater internet trend of seeing Ohio as the most destitute and isolated state, even out of the Midwest, but I found the memes about Ohio’s mediocrity funny. I eagerly told everyone about how difficult it would be for me to “brave it out.” 

There have been many pieces written across Oberlin’s publications talking about the dangers of this narrative. By joking that I was “going to school in a cornfield,” Oberlin, not only the state of Ohio, became nothing more than a cornfield to me. I came into Oberlin with the expectation of it being nothing but a school in the middle of nowhere, and that’s how it treated me. It was easier to complain about the bad dining hall food, the 40-minute drive to Cleveland, and the flatness of campus than to give it a genuine chance. My doubts about Oberlin began to translate onto myself as a person. It felt like I was always one second behind in class and conversation; the illusion to people back home that I was doing well felt like it was slowly slipping away. Coupled with an Omicron outbreak that sent classes online and some personal issues, I finished the semester feeling subpar. I began questioning if Oberlin truly was the right decision. I considered logging onto CommonApp again and looking for other schools that were perhaps in a sunnier location, had a bigger campus, and were closer to home. Oberlin had assured me that I could be one person who could change the world, but maybe they were wrong. 

I’m not sure what exactly prevented me from starting another application. Nevertheless, I convinced myself to give Oberlin one more chance. My mindset didn’t change overnight, and I still had doubts about what I wanted to make out of my time here. But I realized that Oberlin wasn’t the solution to my problems. By framing it as such in the first place, it made finding the faults that much easier. This time, when I joined a new class or extracurricular, it was more about taking it day by day, not trying to make some grandiose expectation to live up to by the end of the semester. 

By now, I’ve found some amount of purpose and joy in what I’ve been doing. I’ve learned to say no and quit, which seems like a major action at a school where almost everyone is running from place to place following a packed Google Calendar schedule. There’s often a narrative that comes with college, specifically Oberlin, that it is the place where we will find the answers. But right now, before the Thanksgiving and finals rush, it feels much harder to find a reason for continuing our routines or lifestyles at Oberlin. In truth, these questions will take time to answer, maybe even long after we all graduate. It’s easy to make fun of Oberlin and even the greater state of Ohio for its mistakes, but there’s also a chance to appreciate it for what it does have. It’s okay if your first, second, or even third semester isn’t social-media worthy. 

This article is not in full defense of Oberlin. I agree with many criticisms of the College that have all been widely documented, especially in the last few years. And this isn’t to say my life hasn’t magically gotten better or easier since rethinking Oberlin. But it’s a reminder to myself and to others that Oberlin is what you make of it. It’s either a place of opportunity or nothing but a cornfield in the Midwest. Maybe we can’t change the world in four years, but we can start with ourselves. 

Laufey trained as a classical musician, graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2021, but has cited jazz musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker as some of her biggest influences. In an article for Vogue Singapore, Janice Sim described how she is popularizing the genre among teenagers. 

“In today’s zeitgeist, the role Laufey plays is a monumental one,” Sim wrote. “Gen-Z’s answer to the renaissance of jazz. In a time where memetic sounds inundate the Top 100 charts, her sound is an invigorating reprieve. Her take on modern jazz swings between pop and classical, while unabashedly serenading her wide pool of fans with personal encounters that speak of love, self and identity via her lyrics — almost her way of journaling.”

Laufey’s appeal to Gen Z is in part thanks to the impact of her popularization of jazz and classical music within the “sad Wasian” community. The way she blends genres is reflective of her experience growing up with a blended identity as one of the only Asian kids in her community in Iceland. She represents a greater opportunity for Asian artists to forge their own styles and make music that reflects the environments that they’ve grown up in. There’s no single lyric or genre that can properly describe the pain, loneliness, or isolation of that experience, so Laufey uses multiple. For instance, her songs “Let You Break My Heart Again” and “Nocturne (Interlude)” are both classical pieces and have been performed in large symphony orchestras such as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. However, she can also express her feelings of jealousy and inadequacy with a simple bassline in songs such as “Magnolia” or “Second Best.” 

In general, her music is empowering younger audiences, Asian or not, to talk about their own feelings, whether it’s imagining a future with a stranger on a park bench or appreciating the joys of having a best friend. It’s important for Asian artists to be represented in mainstream music after decades of erasure, and it’s special that Laufey is able to embrace her identities as a musician and as a person with her own style, lyricism, and genre. 

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Keating and I attended her concert at the House of Blues in Cleveland this Tuesday. In her encore, she sang “Letter To My 13 Year Old Self,” and before singing, she stated that the song was a reflection of her childhood experiences and what the future would later hold for her. Alone on stage with nothing but her bass and illuminated by spotlights as the starry night effect from the main show dimmed, Laufey delivered her letter to Cleveland, singing, “I’m so sorry that they pick you last / Try to say your foreign name and laugh / I know that you feel loud, so different from the crowd / Of big blue eyes, and long blonde hair, and boys that stare.” 

Everyone in the crowd, whether they were college students looking for something to do with a school night or older couples celebrating their love, felt the impact of her words. By giving voice to the sadness and nostalgia of her youth through the variety of genres that she navigates, her music sheds light on the progress and hope that Asian artists can have in the industry to fully express their emotions and spirit in their work, and in preparation for the next heartbreak, depression, or grief that fans of the “sad Wasian” archetype will inevitably live through.

Pathfinder is the successor to LaunchU, a Winter Term program last held in 2020 that allowed students to pitch ideas for startup funding and compete to earn money for their venture. In comparison, Pathfinder will be a year-long program. Pathfinder is also different from the microgrant competition, which is less competitive and a lower-stakes option for students interested in starting a small business or earning experience. However, microgrants can still be used for business ideas. 

The program was spearheaded by Associate Professor of Business Eric Lin, who first came to the College in January 2023. He wanted a more upfront way for students to develop a business pitch. As part of the program, Lin created a number of instructional videos about the Business Pitch Assessment, as well as other things essential for a pitch document such as feasibility, financial visibility, and customer desirability.

Lin explained more about what the program would look like regarding pitching. He highlights the accessibility of the program. For instance, the Google form offers a wide range of interest statements for students to use, varying from those who already have a venture or business idea to students who are interested in pursuing an MBA or want to have an entrepreneurial mindset as an artist or a musician. He also acknowledged that, while not all pitches would become a long-term business idea, the feedback would help students at their individual level for their pitch. 

“Students are going to come forward with their ideas, irrespective of where they are in the process,” Lin said. “They submit an idea through a video, and they get some feedback, and we do some rounds. Some people might learn, ‘This is not something I’m that interested in looking forward,’ which is fine, it’s a great thing to realize, or ‘Here’s some ways I can adjust it,’ but at some point, the people who stick around and keep iterating, they graduate to now starting to [have] a mature business idea.”

Entrepreneurship Program Manager Debra Herzog emphasized the importance of Pathfinder at Oberlin, especially in relation to the Business Integrative Concentration.  

“We know of several Obies who have gone on to have success in business, entrepreneurship, social-entrepreneurship and/or solo-entrepreneurship, and interest is growing with the implementation of the Business Integrative Concentration,” Herzog wrote in an email to the Review. “It is an important piece of the offerings, and it makes sense for students to have access and the ability to experience this in a co-curricular, experiential, risk-free, and systematic way.”

Director of Entrepreneurship Instructor in Business Ted Evans provided a vision for what the completed version of Pathfinder would look like in a couple years. The team hopes that, in a couple of years, Pathfinder would also involve alumni and community members from the City to help support students’ ideas. 

“If it’s successful, we would see Pathfinder taking in a healthy number of students and then taking their ideas to the point where they could pitch in front of investors who say  ‘I get your 10 minute pitch that you just gave me,’” Evans said. “It had all the elements that we’re seeking. You articulated them properly, you did your research. That’s how we would envision Pathfinder two or three years from now. We’re hoping for this ideal situation, the output of Pathfinder is a number of these sound business ideas that have been well-researched and well-documented that moved on to a funding stage.”

Admissions for the Pathfinder program are currently on a rolling basis. Students can get involved by filling out the interest form.

On March 20, 2022, former Women’s Lacrosse Head Coach Kim Russell reposted on her Instagram story a post that read, “Congratulations to Emma Weyant, the real woman who won the NCAA 500-yard freestyle event,” in response to Lia Thomas winning the 500-yard freestyle in the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships. She captioned the repost, “What do you believe? I can’t be quiet on this… I’ve spent my life playing sports, starting & coaching sports programs for girls & women…”

Russell joined the Oberlin Athletics Department in 2018 as head coach of women’s lacrosse. She played Division I lacrosse at the College of William and Mary and previously coached at Magnificat High School in Rocky River, OH; Baldwin Wallace University; and IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. 

A student reported Russell’s comments to Associate Vice President of Athletics Natalie Winkelfoos. The next day, Russell met with both Winkelfoos and Senior Associate Director of Athletics Creg Jantz to discuss her comments, which Russell recorded on her phone. Ohio is known as a one-party consent state, which means that recording an in-person or phone conversation is legal with the consent of only one party, barring criminal intent. Russell also met with the women’s lacrosse team and was asked to apologize. After meeting with the lacrosse players, Russell met again with Winkelfoos and was asked to write a letter of apology, and Winkelfoos held another meeting with Russell, the women’s lacrosse team, and several other administrative officials. 

She continued to coach the season and the 2022 team ended with a 6–9 record. Shortly after the end of the season, Russell said that she received a letter from Winkelfoos, which would be placed in her file in the Human Resources department, stating she needed to change her behavior. 

Since then, Russell has said that she refuses to apologize for the post and for her beliefs about transgender women on women’s athletic teams. 

The Story Breaks

On Aug. 29, USA Today released a piece on Russell by columnist Ingrid Jacques detailing what occurred. The same day, the International Women’s Forum also published an eight-minute documentary called “Burned at the Stake: One NCAA Coach’s Battle to Protect Women’s Sports,” which documented the events of the previous year and included a screenshot of Russell’s Instagram story, as well as audio recordings of Winkelfoos, Jantz, and various lacrosse players that Russell recorded during the meetings.  

“I was burned at the stake,” Russell said about her experience in the IWF documentary. “I was stoned. I was basically told I was a horrible person, and it was heartbreaking, really.”

Within a week, news outlets such as the Daily Mail and Washington Times picked up Russell’s story. Russell was also praised by members of the Independent Women’s Forum such as former competitive college swimmer Riley Gaines. 

On Sept. 5, Russell was featured on Fox News for a four-minute segment on Laura Ingraham’s The Ingraham Angle. She was joined by her attorney May Mailman, a senior legal fellow for the Independent Women’s Law Center. During their time on air, Russell and Mailman discussed the statement Oberlin provided to Fox News and claimed that Russell broke no rules. Russell indicated that her contact with her players is limited and stated that “everything was still on the table” regarding legal action against the College. 

Three days later, The New York Post published an editorial from Russell. Much like the documentary, Russell’s editorial was a first-person account of her experience during this situation, defending her viewpoint and offering sympathy toward the players who disagreed with her.

“Oberlin — like many higher-level institutions these days — only seems to support the First Amendment if your values align with theirs,” she wrote. “Disagree, and you will be verbally and emotionally attacked, bullied, shunned, and vilified. Perhaps even ultimately forced out.”

On Sept. 11, Russell was reassigned as Employee Wellness Project Manager. Assistant Women’s Lacrosse Coach Erin Mitchell now serves as interim head women’s lacrosse coach. A day later, IWF released an article about her termination. Russell broke this announcement on Fox News’  America’s Newsroom and said that her new position would be one where she had no contact with the women’s lacrosse team. In another statement, the College wrote that Russell was only reassigned because she recorded students without their consent. 

“The decision to reassign Kim Russell to a new role in the Athletics department pertains to her breach of trust rather than any views she has expressed,” the College wrote. “Russell posted about trans athletes on social media 18 months ago, in March 2022. She coached an entire season after that. But when she recorded her student-athletes without their knowledge or consent, then shared those recordings with the media, she violated their trust in an irreparable way. This breach of trust — not her posts, feelings, or beliefs about trans athletes — is why she has been removed from her coaching duties. Russell is our new Employee Wellness Project Manager, which fits well with her skills, experience, and interests.”

At the start of the semester, Oberlin had a slight surge in COVID-19 cases. From Sept. 2–8, 31 positive rapid tests were self-reported to ObieSafe. From Sept. 16–22, this figure decreased to 10.

In an Aug. 22 email, ObieSafe stated that students must have an updated COVID-19 booster from either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech. ObieSafe also stated that masks would be optional but recommended throughout the first weeks of the semester. 

“While Lorain County is not currently in the high-spread category, ObieSafe will be monitoring the statistics closely,” the email reads. 

ObieSafe has not updated vaccination statistics since Sept. 26, 2022. The total campus booster rate, including students, faculty, and staff, was reported to be 81.5 percent. 

Ohio Updates 

Official updates from the State of Ohio COVID-19 Dashboard indicated that there were 1,570 cases, 37 hospitalizations, and 0 deaths from COVID-19 within Lorain county from Sept. 1–27. In the whole state, there have been 15,616 cases, 308 hospitalizations, and 9 deaths within that same time frame. 

Although many testing programs have ended throughout the country, monitoring wastewater by determining the number of present SARS-CoV-2 gene fragments has been a way to consistently track COVID-19 and its mutations quickly. According to the Ohio Wastewater Monitoring Network, Lorain Black River Wastewater had a dark gray arrow, which indicated that levels were steady. From Aug. 29–Sept. 5, the N2 gene average rose from 12,597 to 40,715. These numbers decreased slightly to 20,850 by Sept. 10. By Sept. 14, the 7 day moving average cases was 11. 

This trend was also observed in the MGC, or million gene copies. MGC per day Aug. 29 was 520,000, doubled to about 1,100,000 MGC by Sept. 5, and went down to 490,000 MGC by Sept. 10. 

The most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. is EG.5, the Eris strain, which is significantly more transmissible and is estimated to be responsible for 21.5 percent of new cases. The newest strain has been the highly mutable BA.2.86, or the Pirola variant, which has been reported in 10 states, including Ohio.

“We are confident that Oberlin College legally acquired Egon Schiele’s ‘Girl with Black Hair’ in 1958, and that we lawfully possess it,” a statement from Oberlin reads. “We are cooperating with the Manhattan District Attorney’s criminal investigation. We believe that Oberlin is not the target of the Manhattan DA’s criminal investigation into this matter. Per the search warrant, the artwork has officially been seized, and Oberlin is holding it on behalf of the New York court that issued the warrant.”

Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist artist whose works primarily focused on death and human sexuality. He died of the Spanish flu at 28 in 1918. The pieces central to this investigation were owned by Fritz Grünbaum — a Jewish cabaret artist, comedian, and entertainer from Moravia, now called the Czech Republic, who rose to fame in Vienna. Grünbaum began assembling his art collection in the 1920s and ultimately ended up with more than 400 pieces, 80 of which were by Schiele. Grünbaum was outspoken against the Nazis, and he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in 1938, after which his wife Elisabeth was forced to surrender the art collection to the Nazis. Grünbaum died Jan. 14, 1941, and Elisabeth died in a concentration camp a year later. Many of the pieces were sold to a New York dealer, Otto Kallir, who sold them to buyers across the country. 

“When owners could not be located because they had fled or were killed in the war or the Holocaust, works were returned to the country from which they had been taken,” the AMAM’s website reads. “Despite these efforts, thousands of works of art looted by the Nazi regime remain unaccounted for. Some may have been destroyed; others may have been purchased in good faith on the international art market by museums and collectors.”

“Girl with Black Hair,” a watercolor and pencil piece, is valued at approximately $1.5 million. It was last displayed at Oberlin in an exhibition called Modern and Contemporary Realisms from Aug. 6, 2013 to June 22, 2014. 

Grünbaum’s heirs have been trying to reclaim these pieces for over 25 years. In 2014, Schiele’s piece “Town on the Blue River” was auctioned off with an acknowledgement that Grünbaum was an owner and the family received a share of proceeds. The heirs won a civil claim in 2018 and received two of Schiele’s pieces due to the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act. The Manhattan state court ruled that the pieces were never willingly sold or surrendered.

The AMAM has a section on Nazi-era provenance research on their website that highlights their dedication to returning these pieces. 

“As a member of the AAM (American Alliance of Museums) and the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Allen is committed to following the Standards Regarding the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects During the Nazi Era agreed upon by both organizations and to examining the provenance of works in its collection to determine whether any may have been unlawfully appropriated during the Nazi era without subsequent restitution,” the website reads.

The site also includes a gallery of Nazi-era works with incomplete provenance. “Girl with Black Hair” is not included in this section. 

On Sept. 20, seven pieces valued at $9.5 million — not including “Girl with Black Hair,” which is being temporarily held by the College — were returned to the Grünbaum heirs in a ceremony in New York. 

“This is of huge importance in our world,” Grünbaum descendant Timothy Reif said. “It sets the tone and the agenda for all future cases.”

Associate Professor of Anthropology Amy Margaris, OC ’96, commented on the situation and noted the diligence that the curatorial staff at the AMAM had for provenance research.

“From my own experience and research, every piece has its own history and has to be looked at individually and very carefully,” Margaris said. “The Allen has been working really hard on provenance research and thinking about … Nazi-looted items in particular, and some other classes of special items, for years. … Just knowing [the curators] personally, all of them, [they are] incredibly thoughtful and part of the larger museum world conversation about ethics and looting.”

I grew up in a small town of about 6,000 people where 91 percent were white. I’m used to being the only non-white person in a room or hearing weird comments. You’d expect the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, an organization founded on the principle of social justice, solidarity, and cooperation, to have more diversity, especially within a College with a history of protest and activism. Yet, to my surprise, when I joined OSCA, I found myself in a very similar space to my hometown. Not including Third World Co-op, OSCA is around 95 percent white. Including TWC, it is 88 percent white. It’s important to note that these numbers are also disproportionate from the rest of the College’s demographics: white students constitute about 61 percent of the student body. All of this does not include the lack of economic diversity, which has been previously reported on by the Review.

Personally, I haven’t experienced any significant instances of racism within OSCA, and the people I’ve met have been kind and understanding when I’ve expressed my concerns. However, I have noticed a general sense of apathy and ignorance when it comes to respecting TWC and actively confronting the racism and microaggressions that do happen within OSCA. 

There are specific examples of this behavior that have been documented by the Review. In 1998, a student who went by J bemoaned that “race ‘issues’ at Oberlin are created by the people of color as an excuse for something to do.” According to a Review article in 2000, a co-oper said, “We don’t eat dog” during the discussion to change what was formerly known as Asia House Co-op to Pyle Inn. More recently, a Review article from 2017 written by Carson Li, OC ’20, noted the exclusivity in co-ops. 

“When those white people chat and laugh in the lounge, my friends of color sit alone at the other side of the room,” Li writes. “Of course, we have POC in our co-op — but they are rendered invisible to the point where we must question if we really have them.”

I believe that there are many more instances that haven’t been brought to light. To OSCA’s credit, they have attempted to solve these problems. In 2013, they made Privilege and Oppression workshops a requirement for all members. This started off with the intention to make people feel more safe and comfortable after an incident earlier that year in which racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and homophobic flyers were put up around campus. But I think that P&Os have since evolved from a place of mutual understanding and education to instead burdening POC within OSCA to educate others. They’re a chance for OSCAns to talk twice a year about a pressing issue, pat themselves on the back for being socially conscious, and then get on with their lives. 

Additionally, the other POC and I who express discomfort within OSCA are often met with the reply, “You should consider TWC.” It’s a statement that often comes from good intent, but when you read through the lines it almost sounds like, “We want you to be segregated from the rest of OSCA so that you can’t be a problem anymore.” I want to make it clear that TWC — an intentional safe space for people of all racial and socioeconomic identities to have productive discussion — is important and necessary in OSCA and at Oberlin. But that shouldn’t be the ONLY space available. This space needs to exist in Pyle, Keep, Harkness, and Tank as well. TWC was founded as an alternative, not a solution, to the lack of racial and socioeconomic diversity within OSCA, and simply redirecting people there does not combat the larger issue at hand.

I’m frustrated that racism and the lack of diversity is simply an acknowledged fact, and that after all this time little progress has been made. I understand that OSCA has experienced a lot of financial difficulties since COVID-19. But I also believe that by not taking action, fewer people will be interested in an organization that doesn’t put its money where its mouth is, especially when it comes to prospective students. As a whole, OSCA, in good faith, can’t call itself an organization that has “engaged in social justice issues” if they continue to ignore this. 

Racism and exclusion is a deeply systemic problem that has been with OSCA since its conception. Obviously, this isn’t the fault of anyone on All-OSCA right now, and there was already a report by the now-defunct Student Organization Against Racism at the end of the 1980s that first documented this lack of racial diversity. But there needs to be an investigation from an outside and independent source on why racial and socioeconomic exclusion is still being perpetuated. The time for discussion alone is over. People affected by this exclusion need an opportunity to speak out about their experiences and be heard. I am proud to be a member of OSCA, a unique cooperative organization that plays an important role in preserving Oberlin’s culture. However, this is a simple request for everyone to have their voice heard at the table.

“The high court’s ruling to end the ability of colleges and universities to consider race as a factor in the admissions process disregards the crucial contributions students from historically marginalized communities make to the intellectual and cultural life of our campus,” President Ambar wrote. “It also wrongly assumes that racial bias barring people from opportunity is a thing of the past, ignores the enduring effects of systemic discrimination, and perpetuates a cycle of inequality. As a standard-bearer for equal opportunity in higher education, we will review the decision carefully to fully understand the implications for our existing and future efforts to build an eclectic campus.”

Executive Chairman of the Lorain County Republican Party David Arredondo released a statement praising the ruling. Arredondo’s statement argued that the ruling was “long overdue”, and that colleges should college admission should consider socioeconomic status and immigration status instead of race.

“My solution to replacing Affirmative Action in college admissions is that socioeconomic and legal immigration status be used to help less advantaged college applicants,” Arredondo wrote. “We should boost working class and non-college graduate households and first generation immigrant families.”

President Ambar’s statement was directly quoted in a letter from Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, sent July 6. In it, Vance warned President Ambar as well as the presidents of Kenyon College and all eight Ivy League schools, comparing their reactions to the defiance against Brown v. Board of Education and requesting that the colleges respond to him by July 21 to ensure that they adhere to the ruling. 

“Statements along these lines are particularly disconcerting in light of recent revelations that proponents of unlawful affirmative action sometimes practice ‘unstated affirmative action,’ in which hiring and admissions decisions are made on the basis of race in a covert and unspoken way, even when the relevant decision maker is placed under oath in a deposition,” Vance wrote.

Oberlin released a statement to the Ohio Capital Journal in an article published July 25 and ensured that they would comply with the law. In an email to the Review, Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Manuel Carballo discussed Oberlin’s comprehensive admissions practice.

“In our prior holistic review process, many factors were considered, including academic preparation, community and extracurricular involvement, and race, among others,” Carballo wrote. 

Carballo noted that the Supreme Court opinion does not prohibit universities from taking applicants’ discussion of how race, has affected their lives into consideration.

“As explained in a Q & A issued by the The Departments of Justice and Education in August, this means … that ‘a university could consider an applicant’s explanation about what it means to him to be the first Black violinist in his city’s youth orchestra or an applicant’s account of overcoming prejudice when she transferred to a rural high school where she was the only student of South Asian descent,’” Carballo wrote. “In other words, students who believe race is an important part of their experience should feel free to write about it.” 

The Supreme Court first announced that it would hear challenges to affirmative action Jan. 24, 2022. This gave the administration a year and a half to identify how Oberlin would be affected by the ruling.  

“Because we did not know what the scope of the SCOTUS ruling would be, we looked at programs on campus that could potentially be affected and had conversations with those overseeing those programs about how the ruling might impact their work,” President Ambar wrote in an email to the Review. “Regular meetings and conversations about the potential implications of the ruling were held at every level of the college in the months leading up to the ruling.”

One of these programs affected is the Multicultural Visit Program. As previously reported in the Review, MVP is a program for prospective students from underrepresented communities who are flown into Oberlin for the weekend so that they can experience campus life before applying. MVP has been renamed Oberlin Overnight: Diversity and Access, and is now open to anyone who is passionate about a commitment to diversity. 

“Students will be selected for participation based on their academic qualifications and  demonstrated interest in diversity issues, with priority given to students from families with limited financial resources,” Carballo wrote. “All students who share our dedication to diversity are invited to apply. We particularly encourage applications from students who identify with historically underrepresented groups, such as those who are the first generation in their family to go to college, low-income, and/or students of color. In the spring, we will continue to host  [Oberlin Overnight] … during All Roads Lead to Oberlin. Making sure folks understand our commitment to diversity and inclusion when they visit campus is more important now than ever.”