Why I wasn’t right for Oberlin
November 11, 2011 5 Comments
I taught at Oberlin College one year as a visiting faculty member (right after my PhD) before ending up at Texas Tech. Lots of my friends were shocked (shocked!) when I told them I actually liked working at Texas Tech better. While TTU, on the whole, was obviously much more conservative than Oberlin, there was much greater diversity of political viewpoints. A good thing in a university. I also really was not a big fan of the Oberlin vibe, summed up in their latest website sensation (edited for my distaste for profanity on my blog):
Why the f*** should you choose Oberlin?
Turns out, there are plenty of reasons.
“Because our bathroom f***ing graffiti is intellectual and creative as shit.”
“Because we have the best f***ing safer sex education out there, and that means we can have awesome f***ing sex.”
“Because when America didn’t think black people and women were people, Oberlin thought they should probably f***ing go to college.”
“Because they’re not afraid of words like ‘f***.’ ”
These are just four of the nearly 2,500 reasons Oberlin College students and alumni have posted on the alumni-created website, Why the f*** should I choose Oberlin? Since its creation only two weeks ago, the site has exploded, with students, faculty, staff and alumni buzzing about their love for the irreverent but on-point website. (The screen shot above gives a sense of the flavor of the site, with some words redacted since our home page may be viewed by those not expecting profanity.)
“It is a very Oberlin creation, and part of why Obies love it so much is it’s got some of that rebellious Oberlin spirit,” said Harris Lapiroff, co-creator and 2010 graduate of Oberlin…
“Using the f-word makes it edgy,” said Jones, an Oberlin alumnus. “If they had made a site ‘Why I should choose Oberlin,’ it would have gotten 10 submissions. People respond to things that are edgy and unusual. And that amount of school pride is pretty cool.”
Oooohhh, they’re so edgy! Consider me not impressed and not the least regretful that I was not considered for a permanent job there. [I’ll be expecting an Oberlin defense from Big Steve]
About Steve Greene
Fully Myelinated 
I agree. I react to this the way I react to a lot of performance art. Just because you can poop on stage or pee in a jar or say naughty words doesn’t make you artistic or edgy.
I think you are over-thinking it. It just gives folks a chance to feel more passionate and funnier than just a “I think Oberlin is swell ….”
Oh, and yes, I entered my own why Oberlin is f-ing swell ….. because you know, it is f-ing swell.
And given how normalized curse words have become now (just watch TV these days), this is not even putting poop on stage. Again, I don’t think the idea is to be edgy but passionate. I am glad to see that Obies past and present are still passionate.
I can see both sides, but I side a bit more with Steve. It’s not that it took anything special to write the copy, it’s that Oberlin was OK with it. If I’m a student, that tells me Oberlin is not buttoned-up and stuffy and is OK with me being creative and experimenting.
Or, at least, their marketing department is doing a good job tricking me into thinking that.
Itchy: perhaps not the post when taking sides, you should side with “Steve”
Ha! Oops.