The Weekly

Johan, Roman, and Daniel talk with RadioLab host and Oberlin alum Robert Krulwich about his time at Oberlin and his views on current campus culture.

Introducing a new feature of The Weekly! The Oberlin Review news editors Katie Lucey and Anisa Curry Vietze discuss the headlines from this week’s edition of the The Oberlin Review.

Sarah and Roman talk with Student Senator Kirsten Mojziszek about new changes to Title IX being pursued by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. 

Johan and Roman talk with Prof. Charmaine Chua about Oberlin, private higher education, neoliberal reforms, and her decision to leave. 

Sarah Dalgliesh and Daniel Markus talk to Student Senate Chair Kameron Dunbar about the AAPR process and report. 

Roman and Johan sit down with Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley and talk what life is like in the Foreign Service, what the world is like today, and where foreign policy could evolve to. 

This year's commencement speaker is David Sedaris, who recently published Calypso, a new collection of stories. We'll ask him for his advice for graduates, how he went from drug addict and college dropout to critically acclaimed writer, and, most importantly, whether he really fed his tumor to a snapping turtle. Really?

Please be advised that this episode of our show contains foul language, mentions of drug use, and other topics unsuitable for young listeners.

In this episode, we talk to Bridget Flynn, Oberlin's sustainability manager, and Rachael Hood, a student activist and campus leader on sustainability issues. We discuss the role of the Office of Environmental Sustainability, how Oberlin is becoming more sustainable, and, most importantly, the NEXUS pipeline, which will run through Oberlin.

Before becoming President Ambar's chief of staff, Ferd Protzman, OC '75, worked an award winning journalist for the New York Times, Washington Post, and International Herald Tribune. He's also the author of six books for National Geographic.

More importantly, though, he went to Oberlin in the 1970s, and we have a lot of questions. Were Oberlin students in the '70s very similar to Oberlin students now? What was it like to go to Oberlin during the Vietnam War? Also, what does the job of a chief of staff even entail? On this episode of our show, we find out.

Editor's Note: Due to technical issues with WOBC's radio transmitter, the recording of this show has significantly decreased audio quality. We have done as much as possible to repair the damage, and we apologize for the issues.

On May 30, 2017, Carmen Twillie Ambar was named as the 15th President of Oberlin College by the Board of Trustees, and is the first Black woman to hold the position in the College's history. After settling into the job, she announced that under her leadership, the College would begin an Academic and Administrative Program Review (AAPR), a sweeping audit of all college offices, programs, and departments. Under AAPR, a steering committee of faculty, staff, and students will conduct research and analysis from now until next spring, subsequently making recommendations to the board.

In her previous role as President of Cedar Crest College, Ambar initiated a similar process. But is that a good thing? Many faculty members don't think so. At Cedar Crest, AAPR resulted in the proposed elimination of five majors; sustained lobbying efforts by students and faculty only saved two of them. What's more, the process was opaque, deceptive, and at times disturbing. No notes were taken of steering committee meetings, leaving no record of how and why certain decisions were made; a faculty member was fired after being told in writing that they would not, leading to a lawsuit against Cedar Crest; and Ambar's chosen consulting firm, Stevens Strategy, made fraudulent claims in a presentation to the Cedar Crest board and engaged in a practice of ranking majors by their financial value.

Should we be worried? (Daniel is very worried.) We'll ask President Ambar about that, and also find out why she thinks Oberlin is the best college in the country.