The Free Store at Oberlin offers goods including clothes, kitchenware, and school supplies at no cost. It is open to both students and community members. Founded in 2007, it operates in the basement of Asia House and is run by the Resource Conservation Team, a student group focused on decreasing Oberlin’s ecological footprint through various initiatives.

“The mission of the Free Store is promoting a circular economy,” College fourth-year and RCT member Lanie Cheatham said. “It’s a nice way to support the community and serve as a resource for people who might not be able to buy clothes or kitchen supplies, or whatever else we have with the Free Store, and also taking things that would be discarded and providing them a new home.”

Although predominantly frequented by students, the Free Store is open to community members as well. However, because the building requires tap-in access, those without an Oberlin ID have to call to be let in. According to Cheatham, the RCT is trying to address this barrier by seeking to move the Free Store to a more accessible location.

While the Free Store is a popular place to get free things, it is also an ideal place to drop off unwanted ones. Bins Day was prompted by an overabundance of clothes and other items.

“We had so many extra clothes from Big Swap last year, we were just actually swamped with clothes,” Double-degree second-year and RCT member Reyah Doshi said. “Our storage room [didn’t have] a clear pathway that we could walk through, so we had to organize the clothes and get rid of them the quickest way we could.” 

Bins Day drew a large crowd. Although there was no record of how many people attended, the previously overflowing bins were half empty by the end of the event.

College second-year Reed Wang arrived early with friends to find an already packed room.

“There were a lot of really cool finds,” Wang said. “I got some new sweaters and shirts that I love a lot, but it was hard to navigate around all the people and dig through the bins.” 

College third-year Sola Stacey, who also went to Bins Day, agreed. 

“This event was an awesome opportunity to go through items that other people aren’t loving anymore, take them home and try them on, and either keep them or bring them back without having to spend a ton of money or effort on returns,” Stacey said. “The event itself was hectic, with a ton of people crowded into a small, hot room, but after I got in the groove of it, I didn’t mind as much.”

NOACA is a transportation and environmental planning agency funded by federal dollars. It is currently leading a series of “engagement meetings,” facilitated by NOACA staff and the Joel Ratner Community Partnership, to gather feedback across Northeast Ohio’s five counties — Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Medina, and Lorain — on NOACA’s Climate Action Plan.

The Climate Action Plan aims to align with national and global efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as set out by the Paris Agreement in 2015, in order to reduce some of the more severe effects of climate change.

“A primary objective of a regional framework and plan for climate action (climate pollution reduction) is to create a foundation for transformative solutions that will enhance equity across the region,” NOACA’s website reads in their description of the plan.

This works in tandem with the City of Oberlin’s current five-year Climate Action Plan. The town will soon reset its climate goals as the five years come to an end.

“We want to be bold in our climate action so that we can be a model,” City of Oberlin Sustainability Coordinator Linda Arbogast said.

In order to create the regional climate action plan, NOACA is listening to what the people of Northeast Ohio’s five counties want. The engagement meetings have all followed the same structure. After a brief introduction and overview of NOACA and their current climate initiative, participants have the opportunity to talk in small groups and then vocalize their opinions and concerns, recorded by the facilitator.

College fourth-year Emily Bengston attended multiple engagement meetings.

“It was kind of cool to go from a year, a year and a half ago, reading about this bill that’s happening in the federal legislature and that felt so disconnected from my personal life, and to then see, okay, this is how the money is actually being spent,” Bengston said. “This is how these big federal laws that feel so distant can actually have an impact on my day-to-day life.”

Participants were presented with questionnaires in order to collect quantitative data. Additionally, NOACA facilitated an online survey open to the public which they encouraged everyone to fill out.

Arbogast commented on climate-denying groups that have come to past NOACA meetings in other communities.

“The people who are the deniers and the disruptors are the minority, but they’re very vocal,” she said. “They show up and they make their points heard.”

An organizer of these events, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology John Petersen, OC ’88, also expressed frustration with climate change deniers.

“Never underestimate what a small group of motivated people can do to change the world,” Petersen said, referencing a quote by Margaret Mead. “They almost ruined the whole planning process. [NOACA] had a vote last spring about whether they were just going to tank the whole climate changing process.”

When asked about future opportunities for involvement, Joel Ratner, founder of the Joel Ratner Community Partnership, talked about the online survey as the main way to make ideas heard. This is part of their feedback collection process and will impact their new plan draft. Following the meetings, the Joel Ratner Community Partnership will share the feedback with NOACA, which will then be used to help draft a report. This document draft report, which should be available around October or November, will then be made public and shared with everyone who attended the sessions.

“We need to work at every single scale concurrently to address this global problem,” Petersen said. “And I think the idea of working at the regional scale is absolutely critical.”

Several students voiced desires for there to be more engagement between the College and larger community.

“In general I think it’s super important for the College to have relationships with regional organizations because it’s very easy for College students to … not really engage in a community way,” College third-year, Oberlin Environmental Dashboard Research Team Member, and Community Voices Project Co-Lead Bryn Kearney said. “So I think anything that is really enhancing community engagement is super important and fruitful.”

Over the summer, the construction of underground piping on North Professor Street was completed under Severance Hall, the Science Center, Bailey House, Zechiel House, Noah Hall, Kahn Hall, East Hall, Stevenson Dining Hall, Burton Hall, and Barnard House, transitioning them all to geothermal energy. Drilling of around 850 geothermal wells in the North Fields began this past summer and is 20 percent complete as of Wednesday, according to Assistant Vice President and Dean of Residence Life and Auxiliary Services Mark Zeno. 

The SIP came out of Oberlin’s 2006 pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. The $140 million program aims to reduce campus water use by over five million gallons per year, reduce campus sewer discharge by over four million gallons per year, improve energy efficiency by more than 30 percent, and  provide 11 more buildings with air conditioning.

A geothermal energy system means replacing old pipes with new hot water and chilled water pipes that run underground and distribute energy to buildings for heating and cooling. Campus Energy & Resource Manager Joel Baetens explained in an email to the Review that all SIP buildings will be connected to a main plant, which uses heat pumps and relocates “unwanted” heat to where it is needed. Any extra heat is stored in the geothermal well field, which runs 600 feet below ground.

In the fourth and final phase, distribution pipes and building conversions will connect Asia House, Bosworth Hall, Allen Memorial Art Museum, and the Hotel at Oberlin to the system. The drilling of the well field will be finished, and air source heat pumps and geothermal heat pumps will be added to the main plant. 

Most construction on campus is saved for summer, when the majority of students are off campus. During the school year, construction outside of drilling will be limited. 

“You’re going to see … the company that is doing the SIP project out and about the campus,” Zeno said. “They’ll be in [Bosworth Hall, Carnegie Building, the AMAM, and Asia House] all throughout this year, as they’re mapping out what needs to be done and how many units need to be ordered, what are some potential issues or concerns in those structures that they may face coming into the summer, so that they can plan accordingly.”

In order for the system to work, Baetens warns students to avoid keeping building windows and doors open in order to not interfere with the cooling system, avoid blocking heating and cooling vents, and [to] avoid the use of space heaters, as well as to report any leaks or malfunctioning equipment. 

“These new changes will get about 85 percent of the carbon intensity,” Baetens wrote. “Behavior change is really going to play a huge role in getting that last fifteen percent.”

“I wanted to do something for Oberlin,” College second-year and event organizer Noah Hamaoui said. “We come here for four years, and then we take a bunch of resources [from] the town, make housing so much more expensive here than it would be, and leave. It’s important for us to contribute to the town however we can.”

Hamaoui came up with the idea after participating in a freshwater and community conservation externship. Wanting to relate her research to Oberlin, she got in touch with Reeves to learn about local issues relating to freshwater conservation. Reeves brought up the Japanese knotweed, which has been plaguing Oberlin but for which solutions have not been sufficiently funded. So, with advice from Reeves and the help of a research grant from the National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy, Hamaoui decided to create a community action day around the removal of Japanese knotweeds.

She hopes this project might pave the way for future funding from the City of Oberlin to further address the issue.

“If it was [successful], that’s something that we could show the City of Oberlin and be like, ‘Hey, why don’t you create a budget? We have an approach that works,’” Hamaoui said.

Japanese knotweed, a thick plant with deep roots called rhizomes and an aggressive ability to reproduce, was introduced to the United States in the late 1800s. In Oberlin, it has dominated over native plants in resource consumption. 

The decreased biodiversity resulting from this becomes an issue for freshwater ecosystems when the weed grows alongside rivers and creeks, as it often does. Japanese knotweed does not last year-round, but rather grows in the spring and dies in the winter. Because it has outcompeted all other vegetation where it grows, the soil it resides in is left defenseless during the winter. Without plants to stabilize it and protect it from direct rainfall, the soil becomes more vulnerable to erosion and can end up polluting the water with runoff. 

“If you have very sediment-heavy water, you’re going to choke out anything that needs to breathe that water because it won’t be able to process the oxygen,” Reeves said.

In order to remove the Japanese knotweed along a section of Plum Creek, the student volunteers engaged in part one of a two-step process. 

As they stood around a picnic table, pulling on gloves, Reeves explained the first step. They would each split into pairs or trios, armed with a can of spray paint and pruning shears. As they worked, they would mark off squares around the weeds before moving in to cut them at the base of their stems, throwing the plants into large paper bags to be properly disposed of later.

Over the course of three hours, the volunteers cleared an entire section of the bank, shedding clothing layers as the sun came out and venturing down the steep incline on the side of the bank to better attack the weeds.

“The before and after was really noticeable,” Luke Moeller, a first-year who helped with the Japanese knotweed removal on Saturday, said. “Being able to see the progress that we made was really helpful and really inspiring.”

In the fall, Reeves will return with herbicide. The plants, already weakened from being cut and in the process of sending all their energy down to the roots, will be more vulnerable to the weed killer. The spray will get transferred through the stem to the rhizomes, further damaging them.

Both Hamaoui and Reeves acknowledged that using herbicide is not ideal.

“When it comes down to it, that’s the only thing that has been shown to work on these plants, so I am trying to go on the best practices of what is shown to be successful,” Reeves said.

In three hours, the volunteers were able to successfully clear a patch of Japanese knotweed by Plum Creek. To eradicate the entire population from the City of Oberlin, many more volunteers, and many more work days are needed.

Looking to the future, Hamaoui hopes to sponsor a community-based project with Oberlin College’s Environmental Studies department.

“Every semester, I would have people help me,” Hamaoui said. “If it’s in the spring, it will be cutting it, and if it’s in the fall, after the herbicide is applied, we’ll be planting a mix of native Ohio blends to go in that space and not allow it to grow again.”

Reeves believes that engaging the community in projects like this is important. 

“It’s great if something is just done, but it’s even better if people understand why and what’s going on,” Reeves said. “Being engaged helps you feel an ownership and a connection to where you are and what you’re doing.”

When it comes to approaching environmental activism such as this, Hamaoui stressed the importance of listening to members of the community the issue affects.

“Whatever community or region that you’re working with, you have to listen to the people who live there because they are going to know different things than the scientists, who have been doing Ph.D. [programs] on that issue, will know,” Hamaoui said. “I guess this was my way of listening to the community and giving back.”

Vice President and Dean of Students Karen Goff, one of the forum’s organizers, explained that the increased attention toward mental health on campus came after the death of Conservatory fourth-year Maura Olivero last semester. Afterward, a group of students reached out to the dean to discuss the state of mental health resources at the College. They suggested an open forum, Tuesday’s event. The forum follows last month’s general faculty workshop on the same topic.

“The goal of the event was just to bring forth the conversation so that everyone could hear each other, and students could be more aware of the resources that are available to them,” second year Fay Levin, a forum panelist and student wellness liaison for Oberlin’s Student Senate, said.

Mental health issues among Oberlin’s student body have become increasingly apparent. Last semester, there was a record number of student dropouts and emergency incompletes for mental health reasons. According to representatives at the forum, Oberlin’s Counseling and Psychological Services staff see a little over 900 students in a year — roughly one third of the total student body. This compares to an average of about 10 percent at other colleges this size. Such high demand for resources and counselors strains their availability, something students brought up at the forum. However, mental health problems are not limited to this campus.

“It’s not an Oberlin issue,” Goff said. “It really is a national issue, and other colleges and campuses are experiencing similar patterns.”

Despite their ubiquity, students often find mental health problems difficult to discuss.

“It’s a stigmatized topic,” Levin said. “It’s also a personal topic, when you don’t know what details to disclose or what you feel comfortable with.”

By opening up a space to talk, the forum aimed to address and explain the resources available to students. It began with a presentation from the Division of Student Affairs, educating students about the many support services Oberlin offers. These include programs like Well-Being Wednesdays, a BIPOC support group, and mental health round tables, which provide a space for discussions. The College’s triage program, launched this academic year, offers 20-minute initial appointments with lower wait times to make counseling more accessible. The presentation also discussed the Early Alert system, which sends weekly text alerts to students to check in on their wellness. The crux of the event, however, was not the presentation but the subsequent dialogue between panelists and attendees. The conversation got personal as many of those present, from first-year students to longtime staff members, opened up about their own struggles with mental wellness. Some students expressed frustration with aspects of the College’s support services, including their limited hours and the role of Campus Safety in answering calls for help. College first-year Lindsey Saxe attended the forum because she and her friends have struggled with mental health and with the limitations of the resources offered. She felt that the forum addressed her concerns.

“They may not have given the answers I wanted to hear, but I appreciated their transparency,” Saxe said. “Mental health care should be a priority, and in order to care for all of the students who need care, more resources need to be put into it.”

When asked how Oberlin policies and practices might change due to the discussion, Dean Goff suggested that the College might try to offer Counseling Center services beyond academic business hours. Currently, this resource is only available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. Additionally, both Goff and Levin said they planned to hold more forums like this one going forward.

“I think it definitely began a conversation, and it’s on the right track,” Levin said. “It can’t be a one-time thing, and I’m very happy to hear that it seems that it won’t be.”