Center to Connect Town and Gown

To the Editors:

It’s great to hear that Oberlin students and recent grad are working to build a multi-use, community-centered building in downtown Oberlin. The building, and the nonprofit that will live in it, will give Oberlin students and alum another strong connection to, and investment in, the town that has supported us through school.
Oberlin could use a building that emphasizes sustainable growth and community. Oberlin students are a population-in-transit. We, as members of the Oberlin college community, are part of what defines the town of Oberlin. However, most of us live fairly insular lives on campus, viewing ourselves as separate from the town and the greater community. We take our education from the college and walk away. The new multi-use building will provide incentive to students to keep our money and our energy in town while we’re students. The Catalyst will help build personal connects that bridge the town-gown gap that was so often discussed but so seldom actually addressed when I was a student.
The new building and the Catalyst are also a decisive move to bridge the oft-discussed theory/practice gap that Oberlin students experience — we learn intensively and rapidly but rarely apply our beliefs and academic exercises in a practical context while we’re in school. Each year, a wonderfully disproportionate number of Obies graduate to move into the public sector and the non-profit world. With our Oberlin education, we are well armed with the analytical skills, writing ability, and academic training to offer a great deal to these jobs. Unfortunately, while some of us learn more about putting our skills into practice through summer internships or projects while we’re in school, many of us don’t get the opportunity to acquire the valuable, practical community-building skills necessary to take us beyond an academic understanding of social change. The Catalyst will give students a chance to step outside of the college, connect with Oberlin kids, share resources and experience, and in the process begin to learn what it takes to build community.

–Beth Somerfield
OC ’99