Review Arts Implores Help to End Shoddy Event Coverage

To the Editors:

As an arts writer for The Oberlin Review, I want to join the call of those who feel Oberlin’s flagship publication does not do justice in covering arts events on this campus. Unlike many organizations when criticized, I would like to assert that the entire hierarchy of the arts section stands firmly in support of those who demand increased campus arts coverage. This letter, in response to senior James Blachly’s perspective, comes in full support of an improved, more informative arts section, and I commend Blachly for his time in highlighting this point.
The problem here is large, but cannot be ignorantly blamed on those who run the arts section, who take literally two to three nights of their life every seven days to bring Oberlin what, not them, but their writers are able to cover. No, the problem is horridly frustrating for those who do take time to commit themselves to the publication, and enigmatic for those on the outside who have a legitimate gripe when their event, any event, goes left uncovered.
The staff of the Review is small compared to those who read it; writers are students like yourselves who do naturally what most interests them, and it is unfair to condemn the occasional shoddy reporting of these writers when editors are pressured by professors and students to cover certain events even when their well has run dry. At last count, according to an editor, three people on staff have any classical music background. That is a travesty for Oberlin. The only thing you can blame the paper for in that respect is lack of recruitment, a questionable excuse that I will dispel now:
ALL INTERESTED IN WRITING ARTICLES ABOUT MUSIC FOR THE REVIEW ARTS SECTION, PLEASE E-MAIL ARTS@OBERLINREVIEW.ORG, ASAP!
There, unfortunately, also needs to be more done. One more way which I commend Blachly’s perspective of last week is it’s carefully thought-out, creative solution to our Catch-22 situation: if you plan to see an event, have to critique it anyway, why not write an article? For the price of taking a little time to meet the artists, jot down a couple quotes, you could get published in the most widely read paper on campus. Your field knowledge is precious. The article itself hardly has to be of stellar quality, because editors can make sense out of anything, and gladly meet with writers Thursday night to go over revisions.
We must follow the cardinal rule of any open publication: to read it someone has to write it. To ignore this problem is to perpetuate it, to cast blame is to antagonize it. From the hallways of King to the basement of Wilder, and especially the stairwells of Robertson, the call must go out: submit to arts. As it is, we have an unsolvable situation, where everybody has the right to blame, but no one deserves to accept it. But if we at Oberlin can stand and do something about administrative cutbacks and unfair tenure rejections, we can certainly do something about adding more arts in the Review. We’re not fighting the administration or sources of power. It’s the students’ paper, and our effort directly relates to its well being and improvement. How much more can you ask for?

–Douglass Dowty
College first-year

April 26
May 3

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