LETTERS, SPRING 2015 Obereactions JUSTICE FEMINISM SHAKESPEARE OBERLIN ALUMNI MAGAZINE WINTER 2015 JOURNALISM NOW UPTOWN P.12 P.16 P.18 1 PAGE 22 HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE. AND DISADVANTAGE. Your cover article on the new athletics complex was well received (Winter 2015). Dick Bailey’s gotta be smilin’ up there! Dick was on the football (and track) team for four years. He never started a game, and he played in just a few. That was Oberlin athletics then. Few people realize what part his father played in cleaning up the Jack Scott/Tommy Smith fiasco and in restoring Oberlin intercollegiate sports. An article would be interesting for today’s readers. In the meantime, here’s to all the Dick Baileys. Tom Palmer ’51 Newtown Square, Pa. Your latest issue focused more than ever on the importance and impact of teams and facilities around athletics, physical fitness, and health and wellness. There have been so many terrific comments and photos exchanged, triggered by the outstanding efforts around the Knowlton gathering space and the Bailey pitch. Leadership on campus has continued for years to understand and improve what “sport” is all about and why it’s important. That was the word, the concept that dragged my attention to one of several in key leadership roles, particularly Jack Scott (when I was a student) and now, Natalie Winkelfoos. When I returned to campus in 1978 as assistant vice president for alumni/development, we faced two major questions: Do we SAVE football (16 players for the 1978 season!) and how best do we improve sports options for women? We decided to save football and knew that much more energy was needed for women to gain access, have teams, and have equal facility support. Recognizing Heisman’s brief relationship to Oberlin, I gained approval from the NYC Downtown Athletic Club, which awards the Heisman trophy, to use the name for Oberlin’s sports support organization. It’s exciting to see another chapter in what has come out of the John Heisman Club since the late ’70s. I helped coach women’s basketball when I was an employee; I also was a basketball official and focused on women’s high school and college games, in which having well-educated, fair officials was important. Oberlin is in my trust whenever I make my final contribution. Having been encouraged to come to Oberlin in 1973 to play basketball, with a GPA and SAT scores nowhere near allowing acceptance, I still find myself very excited about just what Oberlin is and what contributions of time, energy, and financial support can mean for the donor and the institution. Martin P. Dugan ’73 Holland, Mich. I t has long been known that football players sustain damage to their bodies, particularly to their knees. More recent evidence indicates that football damages the brains of players irreversibly. Football, while entertaining in the same way that gladiatorial contests were entertaining to the ancient Romans, is totally irrelevant to the primary mission of an institution of learning. It is incredible and appalling that Oberlin College, dedicated to the improvement of the minds of its students, should promote or even tolerate such an activity. Let Oberlin College take the lead by giving up its participation in this destructive sport. Roger Searle ’58 Ithaca, N.Y. Slightly horrified to find myself reading— with great interest—an article in my alumni magazine about the new athletics facilities constructed by my undergraduate alma mater. This is what 40 looks like, folks. Tamarine Cornelius ’96 Madison, Wis. (via Facebook) PEERS OF A CLOWN always trying to set the record straight. One is that, from my point of view, Robert Fuller was a very good president for Oberlin in the turbulent 1970s. It was a difficult era for institutions, and he did well. The other is that my collaboration with two important people—colleagues who were part of some of the best work I ever got to do—didn’t make it into the article. Doug Skinner ’76 and Michael O’Connor ’73 and I experimented with theater pieces in and around the Warner building in that long ago time at Oberlin. Then we kept working in San Francisco after leaving Oberlin. Some of the shows that first got me on an Off-Broadway stage in the 1980s were created by the three of us. We’ve appeared together in this century, also. No reason any of this should have any meaning for hard-working undergraduates today (and more power to them). But it’s important history for an old fart, and so I’m trying to offer up better quotes this time. Bill Irwin ’73 New York, N.Y. The excitement over the arrival of the latest alumni magazine was different than it’d ever been when my 2-year-old son noticed Mr. Noodle on the cover. I often begin my reminisc- ing the moment I find the magazine in my mailbox, but this time, I had to wrestle for it. I recall Bill Irwin offering a workshop or two during my time in the theatre and dance department, and for that reason I was looking forward to reading about a familiar face, but Mr. Noodle’s image was promptly (yet delicately) torn from the rest of the pages and carried around for a week or so, being introduced to various stuffed animals, toys, and trucks. It’s nice to know that Oberlin’s alumni magazine can reach even the little people who have yet to travel to Ohio. And who knows, maybe my little boy has a little clown in him yet. Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud ’01 Vancouver, B.C. BUILDING OPPOSITION It’s a singular honor to find oneself on the cover of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine (Fall 2014, “Clown Royal”)—and it was a great pleasure to get to talk with writer Dade Hayes ’93. He deals very graciously with interview subjects, no matter how much they dither. There were two things that got lost in our conversations, or in his space constraints, as he wrote the story. And you know old-timers, we’re I recently read my colleague Professor Richard Spear’s timely letter concerning the way in which Oberlin chooses its architects and the rather miserable results. It continues to amaze me that colleges and universities that contain excellent museums and boast of their dedication (continued on page 41) OBERLIN ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2015 / SPRING 3