Oberlin College – Recent Grads Speak Out

The Bad News First

The following bad news came from a conversation posted on The Uncensored Unofficial Oberlin Alumni Facebook Discussion Group. (This Facebook group exists for people who want to post their thoughts without the college censoring them.) Posted by CW on November 17, 2019:

Has this less-than-objective website [meaning OberlinChaos.com] come up for discussion before? It appears to go beyond the Gibson’s debacle, but a cursory glance also would indicate it’s about as unbiased as Legal Insurrection. Kind of sad, though. I, at least, never saw people creating entire discussions and websites about Oberlin and how awful it was until the Gibson’s debacle started. · Response to CW from La Simpática: What the hell is this website? · Response to La Simpática from CW: Near as I can tell, some right-wing crackpot set it up. I found it in a comment on Legal Insurrection. · Response to La Simpática from GC: AND! It’s “Cardinal Red and Mikado Yellow,” NOT “Crimson and Gold.”

On 2020-05-14 16:59, JW wrote: JD Nobody, I am a recent graduate living out this pandemic in an undisclosed part of metro-coastal elite America. As an alumnus of this distinguished yet faulty institution, it is all too easy to lampoon Oberlin College & Conservatory whenever someone gives a paean for a liberal arts education. It has been eye-opening to read through the lens of someone who graduated 50+ years before me (especially concerning the Oberlin/Gibson’s controversy). I wanted to communicate a few thoughts regarding my time there. I went to Oberlin for specific programs that did not exist in the same capacity anywhere else. I had an amazing time and am grateful for such a unique experience (even if the times could be outrageous). 1. Sometimes, the marginalia of a 100-year old book is more insightful than the babbling of a young professor today. This is a difficult concept to grasp for most of my generation. Their academic sustenance is based upon relentless criticism of institutions while delivering feeble idealism. They are whited sepulchers. 2. Most students have no understanding of why the Tappan Memorial Arch is even there. If some learned the story, they would be glad that those “American imperialists” were brutalized and murdered. This is simply the level of narrative that some people choose to operate with. 3. Reading your blog and other sites makes me nostalgic for my time at Oberlin. Is it possible that one can be nostalgic for daily bewilderment? 4. Anything to the right of democratic socialism is considered far-right on most college campuses. Oberlin is much the same. I could count the number of moderates, libertarians, and conservatives on two hands attending Oberlin. I am not surprised or offended by this. It makes life a little more exciting. I met a professor who confessed to having more moderate tendencies. He laughed and remarked: “It takes a certain kind of person to succeed at Oberlin without being too enthusiastic about the politics.” 5. It is entertaining seeing friends go into more debt for the opportunity to cling to disappearing job prospects. Whatever suits them, I guess. 6. A good group of friends is hard to find at Oberlin. Frank Zappa, an eloquent critic of counter-culture and hippy-dom, said it best in one of his early songs (although addressing something a little different): “What’s the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose. Some say your toes. I think it’s your mind.” 7. The pandemic will be remembered differently by the following: those who enjoyed their time and those who invested their time. 8. One thing I have overheard from old Oberlin graduates is that the dining halls had a system of rotating assigned seating systems. Did this hold through in your time? Students routinely complain about the current sterile cafeterias and how no one wants to talk to each other. Whole tables will be taken up by those who simply want to be left alone and miserable. What a way to live! I would be glad to supply any additional commentary regarding the social and cultural environment at Oberlin College & Conservatory. Best, JW

JD responds to the dispatch

JW, I have spent much of the day working on OberlinChaos and am ready for bed. You raise a lot of points to think about tomorrow. Re the dining situation, when I was a student, every supper required either a coat and tie or you did not eat. In this gracious living atmosphere, 5 men and 5 women sat alternately spaced around the table. There were no specific seat assignments, just the spacing requirement, which prevented people from forming little cliques. There was continuous conversation, and the food was ample and tasty, unlike during the years before I was a student. In that earlier period, each housemother bought the food for her dining room in amounts appropriate for a little old lady rather than in quantities for football players. In this eating environment, one of my classmates came to Oberlin as an eating machine that could hold its own against any hog in the barnyard. He graduated with excellent manners and went on to a very successful career in high tech. He learned in the dining hall as well as in the classroom. It is sickening to see how beautiful the campus is today, knowing that with the rot at the upper levels of the College and the new financial era we are in the beauty cannot last. When I was a student, the campus was grungy, but its core was solid, and its leaders were decent people. It would be an honor to have you as an OberlinChaos author. There is nothing wrong with being a plumber – I have done some plumbing myself. Thirty-one years ago, I bought a new water heater, brought it back to the farm in the back seat of a Chevy Cavalier, and applied some of what I learned in chemistry and physics when installing it. The result? It is still working flawlessly today, 31 years later. Thank you, Oberlin!