Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the country. The college's motto is "Learning and Labor." Oberlin is known for having more alumni who earn PhDs than any other liberal arts college in the nation.

Oberlin is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Five Colleges of Ohio consortium.

History
Both the college and the town of Oberlin were founded in 1833 by a pair of Presbyterian ministers, John Jay Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart. The ministers named their project after Jean-Frédéric Oberlin, an Alsatian minister whom they both admired. Oberlin attained prominence because of the influence of its second president, the evangelist Charles Finney, after whom one of the College's chapels and performance spaces is named. Asa Mahan (1800–1889) served as Oberlin's first president from 1835–1850.

Oberlin Collegiate Institute (as it was originally called) was built on 500 acre of land specifically donated by the previous owner, who lived in Connecticut. Shipherd and Stewart's vision was for both a religious community and school. For a more detailed history of the founding of the town and the college, see Oberlin, Ohio.

Oberlin has long been associated with progressive causes. Its founders bragged that "Oberlin is peculiar in that which is good." Oberlin was the first college in the United States to regularly admit African-American students (1835) after a casting vote by the Rev. John Keep. It is also the oldest continuously operating coeducational institution, since having admitted four women in 1837. These four women, who were the first to enter as full students, were Mary Kellogg (Fairchild), Mary Caroline Rudd, Mary Hosford, and Elizabeth Prall. All but Kellogg graduated. Mary Jane Patterson graduated in 1862 to become the first black woman to earn a B.A. degree. The college was listed as a National Historic Landmark on December 21, 1965, for its significance in admitting African-Americans and women. The college had some difficult beginnings, and Keep and William Dawes were sent to England to raise funds for the college in 1839–40.

One historian called Oberlin "the town that started the Civil War" due to its reputation as a hotbed of abolitionism. Oberlin was a key stop along the Underground Railroad. In 1858, both students and faculty were involved in the controversial Oberlin-Wellington Rescue of a fugitive slave, which received national press coverage. Two participants in this raid, Lewis Sheridan Leary and John Anthony Copeland, along with another Oberlin resident, Shields Green, also participated in John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry. This heritage was commemorated on campus by the 1977 installation of sculptor Cameron Armstrong's "Underground Railroad Monument" (a railroad track rising from the ground toward the sky) and monuments to the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue and the Harper's Ferry Raid.

Oberlin's school colors are cardinal red and mikado yellow, often casually referred to as "crimson and gold." Those colors were formally designated for the college by a faculty committee in 1889 and were drawn from the family coat of arms of John Frederick Oberlin. They remain in the official registry of school colors maintained by the American Council on Education.

Presidents of Oberlin College

 * Asa Mahan 1835-1850
 * Charles Grandison Finney 1851-1866
 * James Harris Fairchild 1866-1889
 * William Gay Ballantine 1891-1896
 * John Barrows 1899-1902
 * Henry Churchill King 1902-1927
 * Ernest H. Wilkins 1927-1946
 * William Edwards Stevenson 1946-1960
 * Robert K. Carr 1960-1969
 * Robert W. Fuller 1970-1974
 * Emil Danenberg 1975-1982
 * S. Frederick Starr 1983-1994
 * Nancy Dye 1994-2007
 * Marvin Krislov 2007–present

Introduction of co-ed dormitories
In 1970, Oberlin made the cover of Life as one of the first colleges in the country to have co-ed dormitories. The article featured two students who lived in South Hall. At first, the dorm was floor-by-floor co-ed, which was considered quite radical. Dean of Women Rose Montague and the two senior residents in the dorm at the time were guests on a Chicago TV station morning talk show soon after Life's article came out, to talk about the "experiment". The program, "Kennedy and Company," sought to reveal the "darker" side of co-ed dorm life from parents' perspective. The male senior resident (Lloyd Blanchard) was asked on live TV if he had "ever had sex in the dorm," to which he replied, "That's really none of your business." Starting in the 2010-11 school year, except for women-only halls, Baldwin Cottage for Women, and one safe space housing option for women and transgender students, Oberlin students were allowed to room with students of any gender in any room on campus.

Historian Geoffrey Blodgett, a professor and graduate of Oberlin, pointed out that campus dorms caused anger among students during the 1960s. Students reacted vocally against the new dorms of the 1950s and 1960s (Dascomb, East, North and South), calling them expedient "slabs" of "sleeping and feeding space," and this protest soon took on other controversies, including the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Hebrew House, as it was known, was set up as winter term project to operate similar to an Israeli kibbutz.

Academics
Of Oberlin's nearly 3,000 students, nearly 2,400 are enrolled in the College of Arts & Sciences, a little over 400 in the Conservatory of Music, and the remaining 180 or so in both College and Conservatory under the five-year Double Degree program.

College of Arts & Sciences
The College of Arts & Sciences offers over 45 majors, minors and concentrations. Based on students graduating with a given major, its most popular majors over the last ten years have been (in order) English, Biology, History, Politics and Environmental Studies. The College's science programs are considered strong for a smaller liberal arts college, especially Chemistry and Neuroscience.

Conservatory of Music
The Conservatory is located on the college campus. Conservatory admission is rigorous, with over 1400 applicants worldwide auditioning for 120 seats. Students benefit from over 500 performances yearly, most free of charge, with concerts and recitals almost daily. The Conservatory was one of the recipients of the 2009 National Medal of Arts.

Allen Memorial Art Museum
The Allen Memorial Art Museum, with over 12,000 holdings, was the first college art museum west of the Alleghenies and is held on par with those at Princeton, Harvard, and Yale.

College Library
Oberlin College Library system is one of the largest and finest undergraduate libraries in the nation. In addition to the main library there are branch libraries for art, music, and science, and a central storage facility. The libraries have strong collections of print and media materials and provide access to an extensive array of online databases and journals. Beyond the 2.4 million-plus items available on campus, Oberlin students have rapid access to more than 46 million volumes from over 85 Ohio institutions in through the OhioLINK consortium. In addition to the breadth of its holdings, the Oberlin College Library is recognized for its quality: it received the Association of College and Research Libraries Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in 2002, and in 2006 Director of Libraries Ray English was named the ACRL's Academic-Research Librarian of the Year. In the summer of 2007 the main level of the main library was converted into an Academic Commons that provides integrated learning support and is a hub of both academic and social activity.

OhioLINK consortium
Oberlin students and faculty benefit by Oberlin's membership in the OhioLINK consortium, providing access to 12,000+ commercially licensed online journals, 130 databases, 18,000+ ebooks and is rapidly growing digital media collections. The OhioLINK Central Catalog represents the library holdings of 87 libraries in the state, including the State Library of Ohio, plus the Center for Research Libraries. The collection is nearing 10 million unique records representing 27.5 million holdings in the system, and undergraduates account for the larger percentage of OhioLINK online borrowing – the process by which any enrolled student can readily request the loan of books and other items from any other library in the system.

Experimental College
The college's "Experimental College" or ExCo program, a student-run department, allows any student or interested person to teach their own class for a limited amount of college credit. ExCo classes by definition focus on material not covered by existing departments or faculty.

Many courses supplement conventional disciplines, from languages and areas of cinema or literature, to musical ensembles, martial arts and forms of dancing. Other ExCos cover an array of topics, in the past ranging from Aquariums to Wilderness Skills to Hacky Sack to philosophical discussions of Calvin and Hobbes. Due to the nature of ExCo, while some staple courses are continued for years, the overall number and selection of classes offered varies dramatically from semester to semester.

Winter Term
Another aspect of Oberlin's academics is the Winter Term during the month of January. This term was created to allow students to do something outside the regular course offerings of the college. Students may work alone or in groups, either on or off campus, and may design their own project or pick from a list of projects and internships set up by the college each year. Students must complete a winter term project three years out of their four in the College of Arts and Sciences. Projects range from serious academic research with co-authorship in scientific journals, to humanitarian projects, to making avant-garde films about historic Chicago neighborhoods, to learning how to bartend. A full-credit project is suggested to involve five to six hours per weekday.

Student Cooperative Association
The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, or OSCA, is a non-profit corporation that houses 175 students in four housing co-ops and feeds 620 students in nine dining co-ops. Its budget is more than $2 million, making it the third-largest of its kind in North America behind the Berkeley Student Cooperative and the Inter-Cooperative Council of Ann Arbor, and by far the largest relative to the size of the institution whose students it serves.

OSCA is entirely student-run, with all participating students working as cooks, buyers, administrators, and coordinators. Every member is required to do at least one hour per week of cleaning, ensuring that no one is valued above others. Most decisions within OSCA are made by modified consensus. Oberlin bans all fraternities and sororities, making the co-ops the largest student-organized social system at the college.

Political activism


Oberlin students have a reputation for being notably liberal or progressive. The college was ranked among the Princeton Review's' list of "Colleges with a Conscience" in 2005. Recent activism among the student body has resulted in a campus-wide ban on sales of Coca-Cola products.

Oberlin is also known for its liberal attitude toward sexuality and gender expression. Oberlin was ranked among the 20 friendliest campuses for LGBT students in The Advocate's College Guide for LGBT Students. Several different student groups exist to support the interests of LGBT students and their allies.

The school hosts a Sexual Information Center, where students may receive STI tests, free or heavily discounted condoms and lubricant, and counseling on sexual issues. The Sexual Information Center sponsors Safer Sex Night, originally started in the 1980s as a response to the AIDS crisis, as well as Drag Ball, which marks Transgender Awareness week. Both these events are well-attended by students, although they have drawn criticism from conservatives.

Oberlin is a finalist in PETA's "Most Vegetarian-Friendly college" contest.

A sampling of the school's past commencement speakers reflects its reputation for embracing diversity, ranging from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesse L. Jackson to figures as varied as Pete Seeger and Robert Frost; even Adlai Stevenson appeared, a month prior to his death.

Music
In addition to the Conservatory, Oberlin has myriad musical opportunities available for amateur musicians and students in the college. The Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan Players (OGASP) perform one Gilbert and Sullivan operetta each semester. The entirely student-run Oberlin College Marching Band (OCMB), founded in 1998, performs at various sporting events including football games, women's rugby, and pep rallies throughout the year. There are a number of a cappella groups, including the Obertones (all-male), the Acapelicans (all-female), Nothing But Treble (all-female), and 'Round Midnight (co-ed jazz). In addition, students in the college can form chamber groups and receive coaching through the Conservatory. Student composers also provide a demand for musicians to perform their work.

The college radio station WOBC-FM, and the party circuit (including the popular on-campus venue, The 'Sco) contribute to the campus music scene. Many alumni have pursued careers in popular and indie music, including members of the bands The Mars Volta, Rasputina, Come, Deerhoof, Liz Phair, Josh Ritter, Songs: Ohia, The Sea and Cake, Teengirl Fantasy, Tortoise, Trans Am, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Skeletons, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Due in part to both this and the school's proximity to Cleveland, the college attracts touring artists with a frequency nearly unparalleled among institutions of its size.

Art rental
Oberlin's museum has a unique art rental program. At the beginning of every semester students camp out in front of the north gate of the college's Allen Memorial Art Museum to get first pick of original etchings, lithographs and paintings by artists including Renoir, Warhol, Dalí, and Picasso. For five dollars per semester, students can hang these works on their dorm room walls. The program was started in the 1940s by Ellen Johnson, a professor of art at Oberlin, in order to "develop the aesthetic sensibilities of students and encourage ordered thinking and discrimination in other areas of their lives."

Sustainability
Oberlin College has demonstrated its commitment to the pursuit of sustainability on a number of fronts. An estimated 50% of the school's electricity needs are met using sustainable energy sources. Oberlin's innovative Center For Environmental Studies, a building the Department of Energy labeled as one of the “milestone” buildings of the 20th century, incorporates a 4,600 square foot (425 square meter) photovoltaic array, the biggest of its kind in Ohio. The school utilizes biodiesel, hybrid, and electric vehicles for various purposes, offers financial support to a local transit company providing public transportation to the school, and has been home to the Oberlin Bike Co-op, a cooperatively run bicycle center, since 1986. Each of the residence halls also monitors and displays real time and historic power and water use. Some dorms also have orbs which display a color depending on how real time energy use compares to the average historic energy use. The school's Campus Committee on Shareholder responsibility provides students, faculty, and staff with the opportunity to make suggestions and decisions on proxy votes. In 2007, Oberlin received a grade of “B+” from the Sustainable Endowments Institute's annual College Sustainability Report Card, and was featured among schools as a “Campus Sustainability Leader”. In 2008, Oberlin received an "A-" on the annual College Sustainability Report Card. It was also listed as the school with the greenest conscience by Plenty in their green campuses ratings. Recently, Oberlin's ranking has dropped in part because it continues to rely on coal to heat its buildings. Though the school is making efforts to change the decades old coal plant, it is likely going to be more difficult than similar schools in the east and west because of a lack of economically viable alternatives.

Additionally, according to a recently published article on The Oberlin Review, renovated dorms may use more electricity. This is the case for Noah, Kade, Harvey and Price renovated during the summer of 2008. The College architect, Steve Varelmann, has called the numbers "erratic and possibly unreliable." According to Varelmann, a possible explanation for this phenomenon is that previously non-functioning equipment started functioning again after the renovation. Students may also be at blame for their behavior: "What electronic devices are they using? Are they voluntarily reducing light usage? Are spaces experiencing increased use due to the improvements achieved from the renovation?" John Scofield, professor of physics at Oberlin concluded that "We are building more and more efficient buildings, yet we're using more energy."

Publications and media
Oberlin students publish a wide variety of periodicals. The college's largest publications are The Oberlin Review and The Grape. The Oberlin Review is a traditional weekly newspaper, focusing on current events, with a circulation of around 2,500. The Grape is Oberlin's student-run alternative newspaper. There is also a newspaper pertaining to the interests of students of color, called In Solidarity.

Magazines on campus include Wilder Voice, a magazine for creative nonfiction and long-form journalism, Drivel Magazine, a satire and humor publication, and The Plum Creek Review, a literary review containing student-written fiction, poetry, translations, and visual art. Spiral is a magazine focused on genre fiction. The College also produces a quarterly alumni magazine, while the Conservatory publishes its own magazine once a year.

The WOBC News Corps, a news division of WOBC-FM created in February 2010, produces local news segments that air bi-hourly. WOBC, a large student organization with significant non-student membership, also maintains an online blog that focuses on music and local events.

Athletics
The school's varsity sports teams are the Yeomen and Yeowomen. The name Yeomen arose in the early 1900s (decade) as a result of blending the former team moniker with the school's official motto. Early on in the program, football players and other athletes were known simply as Oberlin Men or "O" Men. Eventually, as the athletic department became more cohesive, the Yeomen mascot was adopted, drawing on the phonetic sound of "O" Men and the schools official motto of "Learning and Labor". As women's sports became more prevalent, "Yeowomen" was adopted to describe the mascot representing women's athletics. They participate in the NCAA's Division III and the North Coast Athletic Conference. Oberlin's football team was the first team coached by legendary coach John Heisman, who led the team to a 7–0 record in 1892. Oberlin is the last college in Ohio to beat Ohio State (winning 7–6 in 1921). Though in modern times, the football team was more famous for losing streaks of 40 games (1992–1996) and 44 games (1997–2001), the Yeomen have enjoyed limited success in recent years.

The college also hosts several private sports teams, including the Oberlin Ultimate team. Oberlin Ultimate was founded in 1976 and is often among the top 10 teams in its region. Recently, leaders of the Athletic Department and various club sports have spoken out in favor of increased institutional support for the teams, requesting that the College provide access to professional sports trainers and team transportation.

Football
Oberlin football plays its home game at Savage Stadium.

Oberlin played its first football game in 1891, going 2 and 2 that season. In 1892, they were coached by John Heisman; Oberlin went 7 and 0, beating Ohio State twice by scores of 40–0 and 50–0. They outscored opponents 262 to 30.

Oberlin was one of the founding members of the Ohio Athletic Conference in 1902, along with Case, Kenyon College, Ohio State, Ohio Wesleyan University and Western Reserve. The league commonly was known as the "Big Six." Ohio State joined the Big Ten in 1913. Ohio State's all-time highest margin of victory was a 128–0 thrashing of Oberlin in 1916. Oberlin is the last in-state school to defeat Ohio State. The Yeomen upset the Buckeyes 7–6 at Ohio Field in Columbus in 1921.

The Oberlin teams of 1994 to 2000 have been rated the fifth worst college football team of all time by ESPN.com's Page 2. In 1994, Oberlin lost all nine games of its season scoring only ten points and giving up 358 points. In 1995, the Yeomen were outscored 469 to 72. In August 1996, Sports Illustrated featured Oberlin in its annual College Football Preview as the worst team in Division III. After four winless seasons from 1993 to 1996, Oberlin opened its 1997 season with an 18–17 victory over Thiel College, sparking post-game jubilation with fans rushing the field. The victory garnered national attention as ESPN featured it on SportsCenter. Oberlin would not win again for years. Swarthmore College and Oberlin scheduled a 1999 matchup, with both schools nursing long losing streaks, just so one of them could end their streak. Oberlin lost 42–6 and continued a 44-game losing streak, ending it with a 53–22 victory over Kenyon College at home in October 2001.

Since then the team has enjoyed modest success, staying competitive in most games and going 5–5 (with better than .500 records in conference) in 2003, 2006, and 2007.

In March 2008, Chris Schubert, a former wide receiver for Oberlin, was invited to a mini camp hosted by the Cleveland Browns. He did not make the roster but in November 2008, was signed by the Mahoning Valley Thunder of the AF2. He scored a touchdown in his first game for the Thunder. In 2010, Schubert completed a season with the Richmond Raiders of the American Indoor Football Association, leading the team in receptions, yards, and touchdowns.

Cheerleading
In 2011, Oberlin began its most recent attempt to feature a cheerleading squad. In 2006, a cheerleader fell from atop a pyramid at a football game, initiating the demise of Oberlin’s Cheerleading Club. That injury prompted the school to restrict the club’s activities, prohibiting stunting and tumbling, after which participation fizzled out. The club’s charter, however, remained intact and was used to bring the squad back in 2011. Tryouts were held in the spring of 2011 and the cheerleading team went active at Oberlin's first home football game that Fall, a 42-0 win over Kenyon College. The squad also cheers for the basketball team and participates in spirit building and service events across campus and in the community.

Rugby
Oberlin has both women's and men's rugby teams, the Rhinos and the Gruffs, respectively. The Rhinos were formed in the early 1990s and have been competing continuously since then. The Rhinos have been one of the more successful Oberlin teams, defeating The Ohio State University 14–0 in Spring 2008, and winning the Teapot Dome Tournament. Rhino colors are green and black. The Oberlin College Men's Rugby team was founded in 1973 by Bruce Kostic Class of 1974. They won their first game defeating the Elyria Black River Rugby Club. Oberlin, formed as the Oberlin College Rugby Club (OCRC), was sponsored by the Oberlin College Rathskeller, then the campus pub. In its second season, 1974, the team complied a 3–2 record and carried a roster of 32 players, mainly football and lacrosse players. The Gruffs had their formal charter disbanded in the 1990s. It was re-formed in the fall of 2006 mainly under the supervision of Keith Yoder and David Sokoll. Since then, the Gruffs have continued to grow as a formal, chartered, club sports organization of Oberlin College.

Ultimate
Oberlin has both a men's and a women's Ultimate team, known as the Flying Horsecows and the Preying Manti respectively. The Horsecows have made trips to College Nationals in 1992, 1995, 1997, and 1999. The Manti qualified for Nationals for the first time in 1997. Both teams qualified for DIII nationals in 2010. Both teams also maintain a tradition of emphasizing the spirit of Ultimate. Recently, the Flying Horsecows, after having an unsuccessful 2006–2007 season, hired a coach to work them into shape, and succeeded in advancing to the Regional championship tournament.